The text on this page was created with Google Docs, the free word processing program available at:
Google/Drive/Docs.
The computer used was a Google Chromebook.

FREEMicrosoft Office-Compatible
Programs

If you're about to buy a new computer, you'll be expected to choose an "office suite"
to go with it. Well, the world's most-used suite is Microsoft Office, which comes in various versions that cost
from a few hundred to several hundred dollars.

Nowadays, though, you can have all the functionality of MSOffice for free.

However, you won't be told about these gratis alternatives to MSOffice or
WordPerfect Office — because salespeople make no commissions on free software. You may even be told
that your new computer comes bundled with a suite included at no extra charge. Not so — it's been
figured into the price of the bundle. Be prepared to say you'll go somewhere else if they try to hustle you
into buying, when free alternatives are readily available.

As for what's actually included in LibreOffice and Google Drive/Docs, here's a breakdown:

In addition to the tools listed above, LibreOffice contains a Vector Drawing utility, a Mathematical Function Creator, and a Database program.
Google Docs and LibreOffice can also output documents as Adobe Acrobat Reader-compatible PDF files.

The programs also come with spell-checking, thesaurus, and auto-correct capabilities.

The main difference between Google's suite and the others is that Google's applications reside online,
rather than on your hard drive. The chief advantage of online computing is collaboration, meaning programs
can be easily accessed by multiple users, thus avoiding the need for sending copies of documents around to
various people who may be working on them.

The major disadvantage to online programs is that they are only viable as long as you are connected to the WWW.

The main difference between Google's programs and the others is that Google's applications reside online, rather than on your hard drive. The chief advantage of online programs is collaboration. This means that the programs can be accessed by multiple users at the same time, thus avoiding the need for sending copies of documents around to the various people who may be working on them.

Another advantage to online apps is that they do not use up valuable hard drive space on your computer, although the files created with the programs can be copied to your PC.

The major disadvantage to online programs is that they are only viable as long as you can connect to the Internet. If your Internet connection goes down (as happens to just about everyone from time to time) you're dead in the water until you can get reconnected.

However, with today's massive hard drives, storage space tends to be a relatively minor problem — especially when you consider how easy and inexpensive it is to install USB-connected external hard drives and/or flash memory devices.

If you own multiple PCs you can save even more money by not having to buy licenses from Microsoft to install MSOffice all the various machines.
There is no limit to how many copies of LibreOffice or OpenOffice you can install on your equipment.

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